The UFO phenomenon—growing and not going away!

Is it the next great challenge for the church?

Published: 15 August 2009(GMT+10)

Gavin C. from the UK sent an insightful email to CMI’s resident “UFOlogist”,
Gary Bates. Gary’s reply is below
Gavin’s original email.

Dear Gary,
Thanks once again for your book
Alien Intrusion. I’ve been reading quite a lot recently, I’ve
gone through Tim[othy] Good’s books, now I’m comparing it with what
Missler & Eastman have said [in their book Alien Encounters]. Also
just been watching the European
Exopolitics 2009 in Spain on line, Dr. Steven Greer is channeling aliens
and encouraging everyone else to do so, the worrying thing is that they’re
answering, and he briefs the president on such issues? [website
withheld per our feedback rules].

I just get the feeling that there is a paradigm shift happening right now in our
culture, real fast, and it’s taking the church by surprise, how this all ties
in with end time prophesy I’m still processing, but it’s kind of scary.
It certainly strikes me that if Christians aren’t really founded firm on the
Word with a creation world view then they will be hoodwinked by the ETH,1 that these entities are here to “help us up
to the next rung of our evolutionary development”, even claiming to be our
creators. Will this be the great falling away?

Yours prayerfully.

Dear Mr C/Dear Gavin,

Thanks for your email. It is interesting to receive these thoughts from you at this
time. Of course, I am involved in this type of specialist research but it is actually
only a very small part of what I do. Like my colleagues I mainly focus on the wider
creation/evolution issue. However, there is an ever-increasing amount of articles
from established scientists and even politicians giving the UFO-believers’
cause some seeming validity. The mere fact that politicians are actually holding
such an exopolitics
conference should give us cause for concern in itself. And I have recently had
an increasingly strong sense, almost one of foreboding, that this is an impending
paradigm shift that will very likely be a major issue in the future. That’s
why I make the point about the timing of your email. My concern is that the church
is still not equipped to deal with the creation/evolution problem yet, and the UFO
phenomenon, which is a subset of this, is an issue majorly shunned/avoided by the
wider church. This is despite the fact that a
belief in extraterrestrial life is overwhelmingly accepted by the majority of the
population, Christians included.

The following areas that will likely continue to be promoted as a challenge to Christianity
are:

That the complexity of life—that is, the vast amounts of information on the
DNA molecule of all creatures—means it has been
designed by aliens. We can now map the majority of the information on the
human genome, and when one sees it laid out on sheets of paper, for example, its
immensity is breathtaking. It’s hard to see how any reasonable thinking person
could believe this has come about by chance. Therefore the idea of older, more evolved
(therefore smarter) aliens being our creators can help evolutionists explain the
origin of life (one of the biggest stumbling blocks to biological evolution). It
gets them off the hook by merely transferring the argument to outer space where
we can’t test it. It’s ironic that they will criticize Christians for
believing in an unseen God as Creator, but they are more than happy to resort to
their own unseen forces—as long as these do not involve God.

… this is an impending paradigm shift that will very likely be a
major issue in the future.

But at the same time it is already a “given” for them that more complex,
“higher” forms of life must have evolved “out there”, since
they allegedly evolved on Earth.

BTW when I use the word “life” for the purposes of this email, let me
please define that as sentient and intelligent moral-decision-capable life, of the
order of human beings. I don’t believe that bacteria or some simple lifeforms
on other planets would necessarily invalidate the Bible, though it would strike
me as being inconsistent with the way we’ve understood the universe to be
created so far. One only has to look at the interdependency and interconnectedness
of the whole biosphere of Earth, which was ultimately made for human beings. Seeing
bunny rabbits hopping around on some distant planet in the Pleiades system just
wouldn’t seem to make sense and would be pointless (I don’t see how
this would glorify the Creator). But the abundance of life on Earth does glorify
Him for it is written in Isaiah 45:18:

“For this is what the LORD says—he who created the
heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it;he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he
says: “I am the LORD, and there is no other”
(emphasis mine).

… most Christians believe in life on other planets (or at least that there
could be life out there) and this plays right into the UFO-believing evolutionists’
hands.

Secondly, this evolution of life on other planets, which is being promoted as fact
without any substantive evidence, is a real hiccup for many Christians. Even non-evolutionist
Christians, by and large, don’t deal with this correctly. In my experience,
most Christians believe in life on other planets (or at least that there could
be life out there) and this plays right into the hands of UFO-believing evolutionists.
For one thing, if Christians take the line that God could have created life on other
planets, then it gives cause for ridicule of the Bible because it is silent about
such things. More significantly, as evolutionary
physicist Paul Davies has pointed out (correctly by the way, if we say God
created life out there):

“Christianity, in particular, has difficulties with regard to the very special
role that Jesus Christ plays. If they wish to retain Jesus Christ as the saviour,
is he the saviour of mankind only, or of all sentient beings throughout the universe?
Or will each community have its own saviour? Doesn’t it all start to become
a little ludicrous?”2

There are two areas to be dissected here.

Evolutionists believe that life must have evolved elsewhere in their massive
(and old) universe, and that Christians are arrogant to presume that Earth is the
only place in the entire universe that contains life. As I wrote in
another article on our site:

“The interest in the search for extraterrestrial life is huge—mainly
fuelled by the enormous popularity of science fiction and its depiction of advanced
alien life on other planets. Many evolutionists are acutely aware of this. In fact,
in the minds of many young people, the idea of alien life ‘proves’ the
theory of evolution itself. It has almost become a circular self-serving hypothesis!

Secondly, many Christians struggle with why God would have made the universe so
big if it’s just for human beings. This is the number one question I constantly
receive on the subject. But this is known as an anthropomorphic argument, because
it projects our limited human understanding and human attributes to a non-human
Creator who is outside of our time and space. It’s like saying, “If
it were me I wouldn’t have made it so big.” There are some passages
that remind us not to do this, such as Job 11:7–9 where God speaks to Job and says:

“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the
limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens—what can you do?
They are deeper than the depths of the grave— what can you know? Their measure
is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.”

Of course, the universe was created not just for us, but for God’s glory.
The Scriptures tell us so numerous times, such as in Psalm 19:1, which says:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim
the work of his hands.”

In addition, Scripture reminds us that creating such a universe is not hard for
God.

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the
everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or
weary, and his understanding no-one[no human]
can fathom” (Isaiah 40:28)—[addition mine].

In short, if God is the one who made the universe anyway, then logically how can
it be too big for Him to have made?

Image stock.xchng

Because of evolutionary beliefs most people think that life on other planets is
a fact.

I’ve also heard many Christians say “Well, God could have made aliens”,
or “might have”, “would have” etc. Some of them, with good
intentions, invoke aliens “out there” just in case we really do get
visited some day. But this also tends to project our fallible human reasoning and
purposes onto God. Surely it’s about what He said He did, not what He might
have done based on our limited understanding of the universe? Surely it is reasonable
to assume that God’s very own Word would not be silent on such a possibility
(of an alien visitation), which would be an Earth-shattering, paradigm-altering
event if it were to happen? So when Christians believe that God created life out
there, the evolutionists, reasonably enough, cannot understand why a god would make
other beings and not tell us about it, just like Paul Davies alluded to earlier.
After all, the whole purpose of the Creation was to bring about a bride for Christ—His
church, the redeemed from many nations, Adam’s seed justified through the
last Adam. ET cannot be part of the wedding ceremony because he is not a human being.
BTW, I’m not sure if you’ve read
Did God create life on other planets? but it deals with this specific issue
and most of the arguments.

Christians should not be frightened to stand on God’s Word and should not
be worried that it can be falsified
somehow. Of course, one has to be careful about what areas one chooses to
make a stand or make predictions on (I don’t mean as in prophecy). For example,
although it may be possible, one cannot dogmatically say that the UFO phenomenon
will play a part in the Bible’s end time reckoning. One simply cannot
know for sure because it hasn’t yet happened (it’s the future).

Now, I have heard some argue that because the Bible is silent about aliens it does
not mean that aliens don’t exist. After all, the Bible doesn’t mention
motor cars or us putting man on the moon, so if you had stuck the Bible’s
reputation on those things not coming to pass then you would have egg on your face.
However, these are not salvation-related issues, but I believe
that the idea that God created sentient and intelligent moral-decision-capable life
on other planets is a salvation issue because it would invalidate the gospel’s
big picture, which is the purpose of the entire gamut of Scripture to start with.
(Again, see
Did God create life on other planets? )

The majority
of these channeled messages seem to be focused on environmental issues.
It links human evolution with the state (or evolution) of the planet. In the current
political
global warming climate (pardon the pun) there are many eager and willing
ears to hear this, and to those with a global warming agenda it just adds another
string to their bow. “Hey even the aliens are on our side trying to help us.”
Bizarrely, this aliens/environment link only reinforces the idea that aliens are
real. The UFO phenomenon has been around for as long as mankind has had writings.
The morphing of these phenomena into the cultural understanding of the day is nothing
new and has been going on for hundreds of years. For example, it once took the form
of fairies or elves. This is deemed ridiculous by the standards of today’s
more “enlightened culture”. But no one seems to have a problem with
the idea that some unknown and unseen gray alien beings can travel millions or billions
of light years, defy the very laws of physics that govern our universe and then
walk through walls to abduct a specially pre-chosen human being in the middle of
the night to convey such messages. To cultures past UFOs often appeared as airships
or even flying canoes etc. This is because the phenomena are specifically designed
to deceive by the evil one—the great deceiver himself.

Aliens—a subset of evolutionism

If we undermine the foundation of evolution, then there is no way that aliens can
exist out there in the first place.

As mentioned, the UFO phenomenon is a subset of a bigger issue—the origins
issue. One can cherry-pick the issues one wishes to deal with, and this includes
other issues such as
abortion, euthanasia, animal rights or whatever. But one would only be dealing
with the symptoms of the underlying problem.

So, by just discussing the nature of UFOs or the relevance of the messages being
channeled by alleged aliens, one only gets into circular arguments that go round
and round. It is the underlying philosophy of such beliefs that needs to
be confronted while at the same time one deals with the individual issues. If we
remove the foundation of evolution, then there is no way that aliens can exist out
there in the first place. Once this foundation is demolished we can then use the
Bible to explain, and deal with, the nature of the individual issues. This again
highlights why it is dangerous for Christians to invoke life (as defined above)
on other planets.

Related Articles

References

The “Extraterrestrial Hypothesis” or the idea
that real physical aliens are traveling to Earth in real physical craft. As opposed
to the “Interdimensional Hypothesis”, which speculates that more advanced
and highly evolved beings are visiting us from
other dimensions or even other universes,
and do not have to travel to Earth by traversing space in our universe.
Return to text.

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Readers’ comments

Marshall S.,United States

I am a former student of evolutionary biology who underwent a significant contactee episode as well as abductions before I was born again and rid the beings from my life according to my testimony on alienresistance.com.

I’m almost finished editing my novel that deals with this subject, and I am certainly watching the market ripen before my eyes. … . Just call if you need help holding public discussions on this as I would love to interact with skeptics and supporters alike.

Russ W.,Australia

Gary,

I would like to add to this very interesting discussion. I had a look at a couple of pro UFO websites, and the belief in extraterrestrials is incredibly strong. I watched a recording of Dr Steven Greer speaking at a press conference in 2001, emploring the US government to end their space weapons program because the Aliens come in peace!! This guy had zero evidence to show aliens coming to Earth from space, and yet he, and a whole host of other high profile speakers were totally convinced. On another website I heard a guy say the reason for a total lack of evidence is because the government is hiding it from us! (hmmm). The belief in evolution makes green men (Grays) from the galaxy next door very believable. I was going to say green men from Mars, but now that we know life cannot exist there, they must be living only 100,000 light years away…

Huge numbers of people believe Alien life to be true, because it does away with the need for God as our creator. If you are a believer in evolution, you are a sitting duck for more deception. Maybe the strong delusion promised in 2 Thessalonians 2 will encompass alien activity. Gary’s book, Alien Intrusion makes a convincing case that Alien life belongs to the work of the demonic realm. Hey, if Richard Dawkins now admits alien life on planet zork is real, then the delusion is a fantastic disguise. How long before this disguise becomes mainstream science? Very soon.

John M.,Canada

It is very logical that those who would entertain the idea of theistic evolution would also be vulnerable to extra terrestrials. Both deny, or try to add to, what the Word of God has revealed to those who diligently study the scripture.

If we believe what the Bible tells us about the age of the earth, and understand the real science that backs up a young earth (http://creation.com/age-of-the-earth) then we have no known operational science that could suggest how ET could have travelled here over vast distances since creation week…. only science fiction!

Leon B.,Australia

In Gary Bates’ recent article on the UFO phenomenon growing, UFOlogists are said to claim that we were designed by aliens.

An obvious question then follows: who designed the aliens?

This exactly the same response used for claims for an Intelligent Designer, but there it is simply answered: He _is_ design; He _is_ the basis for design, & always has been. “I am that I am.”

BTW, growing up as a Christian I was under the belief that there likely were lifeforms on other planets, being strongly influenced by the Chronicles of Narnia and then the Out of the Silent Planet trilogy by C.S. Lewis. At first I thought your ministry was nonsense because you ruled out the possibility of life on other planets. As I became familiar with your position on this topic, I was clearly convinced that there is no sentient life on other planets.